October 30, :22

Transcription

1 The Week IN words October 30, :22 י ז חשון פרשת וירא תשעו

2 MAZEL TOV! Rabbi Moshe and Rena Gruenstein on the birth of a granddaughter to their children Yaakov and Miriam Gruenstein. Rabbi Moshe and Rena Gruenstein on the birth of a granddaughter to their children Avi and Esty Binyamin. NEW PIZZA CYCLE The new Early Childhood pizza cycle is beginning next week. Please make sure to send back your pink order forms by Wednesday, November 4. We cannot guarantee that there will be pizza for orders submitted after the deadline.

3 SCRIP The first quarter is almost over. Don't forget to buy your SCRIP gift cards! Quarterly statements will be sent out soon. Look out for our SCRIP Chanukah specials coming in the next few weeks. FALL BACK Don t forget to turn your clocks back one hour to standard time at 2 a.m. Sunday. SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR November 5 13 Please see the flyers in the bag for more details and volunteer opportuni es. CALENDAR NOTES November 11 Teacher Work Day. NO CLASSES November 18 PRE-K Trip to Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science November 26-Thanksgiving. Classes from 9:00-11:30 November 27 NO CLASSES

4 Nursery news NURSERY I-MORAH TAMI For Parashas Vayera, we talked about the mitzvos of Bikur Cholim and Hachnasas Orchim. We learned that Avraham s tent had four doors so that guests could enter from all four directions. We learned that we can perform the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim and listened to the Uncle Moishy Song Hachnasas Orchim. As our Parsha project, we made a tent just like the tent of Avraham Avinu. To help us understand the mitzvah of Hachnasas Orchim, we listened to the stories Dovy And The Surprise Shabbos Guests by Goldie Golding and Who s that Sleeping on My Sofa Bed? by Rudy Grossblatt. This week, we started a new Hebrew language unit on Tzevaim (colors). The children had a lot of fun playing color games and creating fun projects that represent the colors that we have learned. Some of the phrases that we learned this week include: blue red yellow green-tables and yesh li צבע כחול צבע אדום צבע צהוב צבע ירוק הנה שלחן אדום הנה שלחן צהוב NURSERY I MORAH SUSAN This week was very exciting! We concluded our unit on Feelings. We created beautiful easel paintings showing our feelings and colored in a heart shaped feelings journal. During Music and Movement time we enjoyed acting out the wonderful song "Believe in Yourself" Believe in yourself (put hands on chest) There is nothing you can't do (put hands outstretched in front of you) Believe in yourself and make all your dreams come true (put hands out above head) You can climb the highest mountain (climb hands up) You can tame the wildest sea ( wave hands like water) If you believe in yourself You can do anything you please During our library center we read the books Teddy Bear Cures a Cold by Susanna Gretz and Leo The Late Bloomer by Robert Krause. Our book of the week was No Matter What by Debi Gliori. During circle time we listed to the flannel board story, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. The children had so much fun with the story and song. They are even beginning to match up the numbers on the monkeys to the numbers on our whiteboard! NURSERY II MORAH MIRIAM We had a busy week in Nursery II! For Parashas Vayeira, the children learned that Avraham Avinu loved doing the mitzvah of hachnosos orchim. When he was recovering from his bris melah Hashem made the sun shine so bright that it was too hot for anyone to go outside. Hashem did this so that no guests would come to Avraham s tent, giving him time to heal. This made Avraham very sad because he loved doing the mitzvah of hachnosos orchim. Hashem sent 3 malachim dressed as guests to come over, so that Avraham could serve them and take care of them, which made him very happy. We all gave ideas as to how we can make our guests feel happy. We also learned that the malachim did bikur cholim by going to visit Avraham. We had lots of fun playing out scenes of different ways we can do bikur cholim and hachnosos orchim! The children were very interested in hearing about Lot and the story of Sedom. If we want to do the mitzvah of hachnosos orchim or bikur cholim with our classmates, we now have a beautiful class list to hang in our homes! We read the book Who s That Sleeping On My Sofa Bed? by Ruby M Grossblatt. We continued thanking Hashem for our beautiful colors this week. We worked really hard coloring a pretty outdoor scene, making it look as bright and colorful as we could. We learned the following phrases in conjunction with our colors: איפה צבע אדום? ירוק? כחול? תן לי צבע ירוק. כתום. ורוד. יש לי צבע ורןד. מה יש לך? קח צבע אדום... איזה צבע זה? מה זה? זה צבע כחול...אדום...צהב... בבקשה לשבת בשלחן אדום...כחול...צהב קח כסא אדום...כחול...צהב מה יש על השלחן? על השלחן יש צבע ירוק...אדום...חום הנה צבע שחור...כתום...סגול... שום דבר כחול על השלחן We started with our next topic of thanking Hashem for our body parts. We loved playing Simon Says and other games to practice the body parts in Hebrew! NURSERY II MORAH SHULAMIS We continued our feelings unit this week. The children drew pictures on the message board depicting their feelings. We played a fun game where we showed the kids different feelings pictures. After looking at a picture they would turn to their friends and act out the feeling that was represented on the picture they had just looked at. We made a Mood Meter, that the children can use to show how they are feeling. We also had lots of fun making faces with play dough. During story time, the children listened to the book Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna Dewdney and The Happiness Box by Bracha Goetz. During music time, we reviewed The Feeling Song, Five Little Ducks and If You re Happy And You Know It.

5 PRe-K PAGES JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT NECHAMA & SHULAMIS For Parashas Vayera, we learned about many important mitzvos. Hashem visited Avraham when he was not feeling well. From here, we learn the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim. Avraham and Sarah loved to have guests in their tents. From their example, we learn how important it is to invite guests into our homes. We discussed that the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim can be done in many different ways; you can visit someone, call them on the phone or send them a card or a gift to help them feel better. Avraham had the doors to his tent open in all directions. He would welcome people graciously and bring them food and water to drink. He would also try to teach his guests about Hashem. The children sang the following song (to the tune of This Old Man. ): In the Chumash, we often read How Avraham Avinu did many good deeds He would sit outside his tent all day and wait for guests to come his way. Avraham had a wife, Sara was her name They were very happy when three malachim came To give them a message from Hashem That a baby boy would be born to them And so it was, the time had come Sara had a baby and it was a son They called him Yitzchak, a tzadik was he Can you imagine such a happy family! We continued our unit on Tzevaim (colors). The children were busy making collages using many different materials. They had a lot of fun sorting objects and describing the colors that they were wearing. For our Hebrew language program we have been learning the Hebrew names for the people in our families, such as Ima, Abba, Ach, Achot, Saba, Savta, Yeled, Yaldah, Tinok and Tinoket. We sang a song about people in our Mishpacha and talked about different types of families. We even talked about how our class is also a kind of a family! Have a wonderful Shabbos! SECULAR STUDIES MORAH JUDY This week Pre K Children were introduced to the letter Cc. They were able to find words that begin with the letter Cc, such as, car, count, crayon, cat, cookie, cactus and cave. It was exciting for the children to discover a huge cactus plant in our room one day. The children painted it with water, using brushes. They tried to draw pictures of the cactus, and we then planted it in a large container in our classroom. We welcomed three wonderful visitors for the letter Cc. Pre-KI welcomed Yehuda Jeger's brother, Shua, who was accompanied by Mordechai, Yosef Aharon Shapiro's brother from Pre-KII. They brought their clarinets and played a few Hebrew melodies. Also visiting Pre-KII was Chananya Goldberger's parents, representing the letter Cc, with a bag full of items beginning with the letter Cc. We have a new addition to our class. A pet hamster named Cookie. The children are learning how to care for our pet. A favorite book this week, was C is for Clown, a Dr. Seuss book. It is a story about a silly clown named Clarence that juggles large animals, that begin with the letter Cc. Of course at the end of the story they all fall down and cccccrash! We also read My Crayons Talk by Patricia Hubbbard. This is a funny story about crayons that talk in rhyme. To represent the letter Cc, our snack was ccccrackers, cccccarrots and ccccabbage. We completed our classroom Bat Cave, and the letter Cc was recognized for cave. Our theme this week was community. The Pre K Children talked about their neighborhoods. Some children spoke about living in an apartment, while others live in houses. We compared differences and similarities. Part of our discussion was about places in a community. The children figured out ways to get to a neighborhood grocery store. Some ways they came up with were, walking, driving, by bus, on a bike and getting a ride with a friend. We are so happy to have parents joining us to represent a letter of the alphabet, or a talent! Thank you so much.

6 kindergarten CORNER JUDAIC STUDIES MOROT BAYLA, ESTY & RENA SECULAR STUDIES MOROT HEIDI & PEARLY What a great week we had! Parshas Vayera was full of many beautiful stories about Avraham Avinu. Avraham is well known for his Hachnassas Orchim. Even his nephew Lot practiced this important mitzvah while living in the wicked city of Sdom. We learned about the mitzva of Bikur Cholim and how Hashem came to visit Avraham when he was recovering from his bris milah. Emor me at veaseh harbeh" was the midah tovah that Avraham possessed. This midah was so apparent when Avraham offered the malachim a little bit to eat, but in reality served them a full scrumptious meal. We learned about the many challenges that Hashem used to test Avraham, from sending away Hagar and Yishmael to Akeidas Yitzchak. The children enjoyed listening to the books The Ten Tests of Avraham by Shoshana Lepon, Get Well Soon by Dina Rosenfeld and Who's that Sleeping on my Sofa Bed by Ruby M. Grossblatt. We also turned our housekeeping center into Avraham Avinu's tent and used the lessons that we learned from the parsha to inspire our dramatic play activities. In connection with our unit Bakitah, We learned many new Hebrew vocabulary words of items in the classroom. We also used our gears and magnetic tiles to form a shulchan, a kisai, and a luach. The letter Gimmel was taught this week. In conjunction with the letter Gimmel we emphasized the concept of "Gam Zu Latovah." We stressed the "g" sound and realized we knew many Hebrew words beginning with the letter gimmel including, gadol, gir, geshem, and glidah! We enjoyed finding gimmels on our davening chart, in our siddurim, and on our Ashrei worksheets. Thank you for reviewing the homework sheets with your child and sending them back in the homework folders. For the next three weeks we will be learning all about pollution. The children learned that there are four kinds of pollution: land, water, air and noise. We had a class discussion about how pollution is bad for our world. We also talked about different things we can do to help keep our world clean. We made a replica of the Earth using tissue paper and began working on our pollution book We continued learning with Oswald this week in Superkids. Oswald enjoys making odd animals. We learned the meaning of the word odd, and each child enjoyed making their own odd animal, using paper, yarn, beads and foam shapes. The best part for the kids was naming their very odd animal. We practiced using the Oo sound and compiled a list of words beginning with the letter Oo. We discussed appropriate usage of capital letters. The children learned that a sentence and a name of a person or a place and the names of the days of the week and the months of the year all begin with a capital letter. We reviewed this rule each day in our morning/ afternoon meetings. Now that the children are familiar with numbers 1-5 and set quantities, they were ready to explore the concept of zero. The children learned that the symbol for zero represents an absence of a quantity. It tells us how many there are when there are none.

7 Erev Shabbos Parashas Vayera 5776 Dear Parents, The events of this week s Parsha unfold in the plains of Mamre. Who was Mamre? The Midrash Rabba (Bereishis 42:8) tells us he was an associate of Avrohom Avinu, who gave him good advice about the Bris Milah that Hashem commanded Avrohom to perform. The obvious question is why would Avrohom ask advice about whether or not to follow Hashem s command? He didn t consult about whether to follow Hashem s order to go to Eretz Canaan or to perform the Akeidah on his son! The Taz on the Torah (quoted in Sefer Chiddushei HaLev p.64) explained that in truth, Hashem s instruction to Avrohom about the circumcision was not a Mitzva, an absolute command but a Reshus, an option, a good idea that would benefit mankind. As Jews and as parents we face many decisions. When it is a question of Torah law or practice, there is undoubtedly only one address for our questions an halachic authority. But, most of our issues are in the realm of Reshus option. Here too, it would benefit us to go to the highest Torah authority available. However, that is not always practical, and many times others might prove even more beneficial. We learn this as well from Avrohom. Rav Zev Leff (he should have a Refuah Shelaima) has suggested that the reason Avrohom sought counsel from Mamre, and not Shem and Ever who were the highest authorities of the day was because Avrohom was seeking creative angles and inspiration with which to perform the directive in the best way possible. As to why he sought counsel from those not as great as he, that was possibly learned from Hashem himself, Who consulted with mere angels when creating man. Furthermore, in Pirkei Avos (1:6) we re told to acquire a friend - not necessarily one who is on a higher level, but one in whom you can place your trust, and will give objective advice, because as a good friend, he has your best interests in mind. The need for advice is to access an objective opinion - someone outside of oneself, who is not subject to personal bias. The critical point in seeking and getting advice is seeing your situation from an objective point of view. No person can achieve that by himself we are all biased to see things in accordance with our self-interests and desires, to a greater or lesser degree. This applies to any situation. It is especially relevant in relationships and in raising children. At every stage and phase of a child s development there are questions and issues that arise, requiring a decision that will hopefully steer the child along the best path for his or her future success. All too often a parent, guardian or teacher will not act in the child s best interests, because their decision is clouded by their own needs and feelings. For example, a parent may allow a child to hang out with certain (not so desirable) friends because they re afraid of losing the child s love if they say no. Parents allow themselves to be pressured by their children into buying all manner of digital gadgetry, (without really investigating the potential damage they could be causing), without even realizing that they themselves want to `keep up with their friends and neighbors. Recommendations from school about interventions for a struggling student may not be considered seriously by the parent for fear of having a child with a `label. A teacher may design academic work at too low a level thinking they re helping their students succeed while subconsciously they want to be known as a teacher whose students all get high grades. As mentioned above, not everyone has easy access to a Rabbi, mentor or even a wise older person to guide them through life s innumerable issues. There is no one, however, who cannot find a friend, who may not have all the answers, but is able to be objective about their friend s issues. Their qualifications are they need to be sincere, they want what s best for you and/or your children, and they won t flatter you by always agreeing with your point of view. Mamre gave good advice to Avrohom Avinu, because he imagined, if I were Avrohom, what would I do. He had Avrohom s interests in mind, without the subjective bias that Avrohom might have had. Avrohom could follow his advice with confidence. With the proper friend, we can confidently guide and direct our children to ensure the future we hope and pray they achieve. Have a friendly, well-guided Shabbos, Rabbi Kalman Baumann Principal

8 WEeKLY WRAP-UP